R Markdown

This is an R Markdown document. Markdown is a simple formatting syntax for authoring HTML, PDF, and MS Word documents. For more details on using R Markdown see http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com.

When you click the Knit button a document will be generated that includes both content as well as the output of any embedded R code chunks within the document. You can embed an R code chunk like this:

summary(cars)
##      speed           dist       
##  Min.   : 4.0   Min.   :  2.00  
##  1st Qu.:12.0   1st Qu.: 26.00  
##  Median :15.0   Median : 36.00  
##  Mean   :15.4   Mean   : 42.98  
##  3rd Qu.:19.0   3rd Qu.: 56.00  
##  Max.   :25.0   Max.   :120.00

Including Plots

You can also embed plots, for example:

Note that the echo = FALSE parameter was added to the code chunk to prevent printing of the R code that generated the plot.

Population Ecology and COVID Tests

Knowing how COVID may affect certain demographics can allow certain interventions to be put in place that targets each demographics.

Population Over 60

For instance, with the COVID-19 breakout occurring initially in nursing homes in Washington, it may suggest implementing appropriate infection prevention and control measures for the staff and patients can help prevent the introduction of Covid-19.

COVID-19 is often mentioned to afflict the older population more than the younger ones. Observing the graph above, there seems to be no relation between the percentage of individuals over sixty in a population and the percentage of positive COVID test results, or the number of COVID deaths. This suggests the dataset we are using is likely insufficient; many epidemiological studies such as McMichael et al. (2020) seem to show otherwise.

State density

Observing state population density and positive COVID-19 cases can also be an indicator of how density may affect the spread of COVID-19 given there is a higher chance of contact between agents.

Looking at the graph above, there seems to be no relation between the density of a state and the number of tests that are performed. There also seems to be no obvious relations between the number of tests conducted and the number of positive tests. It might be the case that given the limited testing that has been done, it is difficult to truly tell how many people within the population are infected.